Have a Game Plan: How to Commit to a Golf Shot

Have you found yourself standing over a golf shot feeling uncommitted about the club or target only to hit a bad shot? If so, you are not alone.

To play your best you need to learn how to commit to a golf shot- much of this process happens behind the golf ball.

Jake Nicklaus rightly said, “Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent is, there is only one way to abstain and sustain it. Work!”

When you start over any shot with commitment- whether it’s the first tee, an iron shot on #12, or the final putt of the round- you will play better.

Here’s how to master your mindset and commit to every shot in golf.

How to Commit to a Golf Shot

Commitment is needed to swing and putt with confidence. Without commitment, doubt or indecision can easily take over your swing.

Having more commitment is a combination of club selection, strategy, and a good pre-shot routine.

Create a Strategy

No, you don’t have to “wing it” or hope for the best. Instead, you need to create a strategy. That’s when you have the most amount of commitment to back you.

Let’s see an example:

• If you’re teeing off, create a tee-box strategy to figure out what is the best club to hit off the tee.
• Before each hole, always ask yourself if you have the right club for the tee shot.
• Once you do have the right club, hit the 2nd or 3rd shot.
• Then, you need an approach shot strategy.

This helps you figure out the right club for the shot and pick the correct targets.

The key is to start with a big-picture strategy to ease your nerves and create a solid mental game strategy.

Find the Distance

Once you have got the strategy right, find the distance for the shot.

Here’s how you can approach it for different shots:

• For most par 4s and par 5s, this will be a driver off the tee to give yourself a shorter second shot.
• In the case of a shorter hole, use a hybrid or fairway wood to get yourself in a better position off the tee.
• For approach shots, you need to find the distance to the flagsticks with a rangefinder, golf watch, or golf GPS device.

Since most golf courses don’t have marked sprinkler heads anymore, it’s crucial to have some sort of technology to find the distance on every shot.

Make sure you don’t pick a club out of your bag once you have the distance. Instead, think about where the pin is located and where you want to end up.

Keep additional factors in mind like what areas around the green you want to avoid. The goal is to spend as much time as possible analyzing the shot.

Pick the Right Club

Find the right “weapon of choice” after finding your right distance.

Have a Distance Chart

To pick the right club, you need to know how far you carry every club in the bag. This is what creating a distance chart is, it’s how you know how far each club will go in typical playing conditions.

For this, use a personal launch monitor and learn how far each club travels. Hit 15-20 shots (over a few range sessions) and throw away any bad shots to average out a distance for every club.

Make sure to adapt your distances for playing conditions.

Hit More Knockdown Shots

Take more club and choke up slightly for a more controlled swing (a knockdown shot). This will help you find the green more often, even if you don’t hit it perfectly. Plus, you’ll have more commitment because you know that you have plenty of clubs to reach the green.

Commit to a Target

Confirm your target in the following two ways:

• Small target: Like Dr. Bob Rotella says, “Aim small, miss small”, pick a small target like the window of a house or the branch of a tree.

• Large target zones: The longer the shot, the wider the zone. These target zones make it easier for some players to visualize the shot, as these shots happen between two targets. This could be two trees, two power lines, or between the flag and the fringe.

So, pick both targets to see which one helps you hit better shots. Once you are committed to a target, take 1-2 practice swings behind the golf ball mimicking the swing you want to make.

Go Through Your Pre-Shot Routine

• Once you practice your swings, take a deep breath and walk into the shot.

• Then, line the club face up with your intermediary target, build your stance, look at your target, and take the club back to master your pre-shot routine.

Committing to a Putt

Trust your instincts when it comes to putting, specifically. When you hit a putt with commitment, you are more likely to hit a solid.

So, to have more certainty with your golf stick, make sure you:

• Use the Right Putter: Pick a putter with built-in alignment to get the ball rolling correctly off the face.

• Adopt a green reading technique: You must be able to read greens to putt with certainty. If you want a different approach, check out the Aimpoint method.

• Go through your pre-shot routine: A putting routine is just as crucial as a full shot to stay positive and trust your read of the putt.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of doubt and indecision that creep into this sport making Golf a harder deal than it is already. But, if you follow the tips mentioned above, I’m confident you will start playing better from tee to green.

Just follow this process on every shot, and soon it’ll become your second nature. If you find yourself over the ball and not committed again, step back, go through your routine again, and walk back into it.